Plant lust. .

Yesterday, I went to Landsystem's nursery with the intent of buying some deer resistant flowers for the front yard.

I have tended for some reason to concentrate on the backyard when it comes to flowers, letting the low maintenance shrubbery and trees take care of the front yard. But quite a bit of space has been cleared in the construction of the front steps and porch and in installing a new yard and sprinkler system.

So this year I decided I would like to add a little color.

I intended to buy annuals along the driveway, for color, but decided instead on blue and pink forget-me-nots ( a perennial). Even though I love the immediate color of petunias and geraniums -- I just can't see spending money on one-ups....

So I started loading up on colorful perennials. (I'd intended to buy plants in stages over the season, so that I didn't have all early spring blooming plants, but that sort of went out the window.)

Plant greed. Pure and simple plant lust.

I had a budget in mind when I went -- about 200.00 for the whole garden. I'm embarrassed to say how much I actually spent. I bought some boxwood shrubs for the back, which we really need to frame the patio, and those were expensive. I decided I needed a load of compost and topsoil.

But really, it was the flowers. I went crazy.

But you know what? People spend thousands -- tens of thousands --on home improvement projects. And this, to me, is the same thing. Only I save about 2/3rds of the cost by doing all the labor myself.

Besides, I think this will probably do me for the next ten or twenty years. A few new plants here and there. Otherwise, I'll probably just subdivide and transplant.

Unless I go near a nursery again.

I don't think I can trust myself near a nursery.